MATT HOLDING ON TO HOPE OF WINNING THIRD FUNNY CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

ENNIS, Texas (Oct. 15, 2017) - An outcome couldn't have been any different for Matt Hagan on Sunday at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas in the NHRA FallNationals than it was a year ago.

And it wasn't in a good way.

After qualifying fourth and winning his second Dallas title in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series a year ago, Hagan with crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen started as the No. 13 seed and were defeated in the opening round Sunday to Jonnie Lindberg after Hagan's Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T lost traction right off the starting line.

Jim Head Racing's Lindberg recorded a time of 4.372 seconds at 303.78 mph after he lost traction farther down the track to Hagan's 5.186 (257.38).

"We've kind of hit a little rough patch here with some of these races in the Countdown," said Hagan, who has won three events this year.

"It's not because Dickie Venables is not smart or he's not trying hard or anything like that. It's just we've made some wholesale changes to get better. We've got a brand new car out here that we've been ironing out and we're changing some of our stuff in our bellhousing.

"It's just not really working the way that we hoped. So when things don't go the way you want them to, you go back to what you know and that's what we're going to do on Monday when we stay and test.

"We're going to go back and get the old car back and set some stuff up and make some laps and try to finish as strong as we can."

The Mello Yello Series will be off next week before heading to Las Vegas for the penultimate event and a week later ending the season at Pomona, Calif.

Hagan dropped one spot to fifth in Countdown to the Championship standings and will trail teammate and points leader Ron Capps by 226 points when the series arrives at Las Vegas.